2013 Firestone 550
The Firestone 550 2013 took place on 8 June at the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas, United States place and was the eighth race of the IndyCar Series in 2013.
- 3.1 qualifying
- 3.2 race 3.2.1 guide sections
- 3.2.2 yellow phase
- 4.1 Drivers' Championship
Reports
Background
After the Chevrolet Indy Dual in Detroit Hélio Castroneves led the Drivers' Championship with 0 points on Marco Andretti and 15 points on Ryan Hunter -Reay.
In the field of riders, there were several changes. Oriol Servia, Ryan Briscoe broke off at Panther Racing. Servia 500 had last been for Panther / DRR in use at the Indianapolis. Pippa Mann replaced Mike Conway, who had won in the previous event, a race with Dale Coyne Racing. Man denied last the Indianapolis 500 for Dale Coyne Racing. The Team Penske driver reduced his squad back on two vehicle and gave up a third car for AJ Allmendinger.
With Castroneves (twice), Tony Kanaan, Scott Dixon, Dario Franchitti, Will Power and Justin Wilson ( once each ) were six former winners of this race.
Training
In training Andretti was the fastest driver of Canaan, and Power. The training was interrupted three times. More and debris on the roadway were responsible.
Qualifying
The qualifying session was held in the time trial. Each pilot drove two fast laps in a row. The average speed, scoring determined the order of the grid.
Power was fastest and achieved the 31 pole position of his career. It was only his second pole position on an oval. Andretti finished second, Hunter-Reay third parties.
Takuma Satō and Tristan Vautier put no time. Satō due to a gearbox change, Vautier due to an engine change. Vautier, Simon Pagenaud and Simona de Silvestro were displaced due to unscheduled engine change to ten positions to the rear. In de Silvestro, the punishment was due to a fault of the team who had not reported any damage to the engine due date by an accident in the previous race.
Final training
In the final training session, which was held under floodlights after qualifying, Canaan posted the fastest lap in front of James Hinchcliffe and Power.
Race
Power lost the lead at the very start of Andretti and was also overtaken by Hunter -Reay. There was an early caution period since man rolled out with an engine failure and stopped on the track. After the restart Andretti and Hunter -Reay submitted the pace. Power fell back and was soon overtaken by his teammate Castroneves. Power had problems with the tires.
In the 54th round, there was the next caution period: Dixon rolled after his stop on the route of a transmission defect and stopped. He dropped out. As a result, took over power the lead. Andretti stop went bad and he lost several positions. After power had gone under yellow also on the box, led Hunter-Reay on the race. Hunter -Reay was, however, soon tire problems and went to the pits. Andretti went to briefly in the lead, lost it after his stop but again. Castroneves finally took over in the 97th round of the lead and kept it continuously until the end of the race.
In the 113th lap, Servia turned and released the third and final caution period of. Castroneves had not been at this time in the pits. After his first stint was 54 laps, took his second stint 61 rounds. Unlike some other drivers he got over the distance no problems with the tires. In the yellow phase de Silvestro and EJ Viso were fined. De Silvestro had overtaken the pace car and was punished with a 30-second stop-and - go penalty for Viso a tire had become self-employed at the pit stop. At the end of the yellow phase were still twelve drivers on the lead lap.
Castroneves sat forward with supreme ease and was in the 175th lap shortly before his pit stop, a lead of about twelve seconds before Power. Kanaan and Andretti were in positions behind it. Both, however, still needed a caution period to leaven their strategy. Hunter -Reay was the prosecutor who was on the same strategy as Castroneves. He lay back 15 seconds.
While Castroneves dominated the race at the top, Kanaan and Andretti had 30 or 25 laps to go, even to the box, as there were no more yellow phase. This makes them many something back. Ten laps led Castroneves before Hunter -Reay and Ed Carpenter. Behind Canaan made with fresh tires, good ground and went six laps before the end of Carpenter passed on the third position.
Castroneves finally won the race and achieved his first win and the first victory of Team Penske. Behind it lay Hunter -Reay, Kanaan, Carpenter and Andretti. The first five pilots drove all with Chevrolet engines and were the only ones who remained on the lead lap. Franchitti was sixth best Honda Pilot. The top 10 was completed by Power, Josef Newgarden, Hinchcliffe and Viso. Castroneves won the race for the third time and thus became the sole record holder of this event.
Castroneves was the only pilot who completed the race without handling and tire problems.
The first three positions in the drivers' standings remained unchanged, but increased his lead over Castroneves Andretti and Hunter -Reay.
During the technical inspection of vehicles after the race, it was found that the diffuser outlet on the vehicle of Castroneves did not meet the regulations. Instead of 7.6 inches, he had a size of 7.575 inches. According to the racing team Castroneves had thus no advantage, but rather a disadvantage. The stewards imposed a fine in the amount of $ 35,000 against the Team Penske. In addition, the vehicle with the number 3 was 15 points deducted in the car standings. The race result and the drivers' standings remained untouched.
Message list
All teams and drivers used the chassis Dallara DW12 with an aero kit from Dallara and a Firestone tire.
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Classifications
Qualifying
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Race
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Guide sections
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Yellow phases
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Points standings after the race
Drivers' championship
The scoring is explained here.